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our history

About NovaRest

All of our actuarial consultants have extensive experience focused largely on supporting state and federal insurance regulators. 

Meet the team

NovaRest, Inc. was founded in 2002 by Donna Novak, FCA, ASA, MAAA, who has over 35 years of industry experience.  

Our experience includes CMS Medicare bid desk reviews, CMS Medicare bid audits, and reviews of Retiree Drug Subsidy actuarial attestations.  

NovaRest has worked with state regulators, the NAIC, and HHS to implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is the comprehensive healthcare reform law enacted in 2010, also known as the Affordable Care Act (the ACA) or Obamacare.  

NovaRest was also hired by the NAIC to write the NAIC Health Financial Analyst Manual, used by state insurance departments to regulate health insurers.

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is the standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy.
Our History

About NovaRest

NovaRest, Inc. was founded in 2002 by Donna Novak, FCA, ASA, MAAA, who has over 35 years of industry experience.  

Our experience includes CMS Medicare bid desk reviews, CMS Medicare bid audits, and reviews of Retiree Drug Subsidy actuarial attestations.  

All of our actuarial consultants have extensive experience focused largely on supporting state and federal insurance regulators. 

Meet the team

NovaRest has worked with state regulators, the NAIC, and HHS to implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is the comprehensive healthcare reform law enacted in 2010, also known as the Affordable Care Act (the ACA) or Obamacare.  

NovaRest was also hired by the NAIC to write the NAIC Health Financial Analyst Manual, used by state insurance departments to regulate health insurers.

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is the standard used by Federal statistical agencies in classifying business establishments for the purpose of collecting, analyzing, and publishing statistical data related to the U.S. business economy.
Our team

Of Senior Actuaries

Donna Novak

FCA, ASA, MAAA, MBA
President and CEO

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Audrey Halvorson

FSA, MAAA
Senior Consulting Actuary

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Wayne Novak

MBA & Principal
Senior Consulting Actuary

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Janet Carstens

FSA, MAAA, FCA
Senior Consulting Actuary

BIO COMING SOON

Our team

Of Associate Actuaries

Richard Cadwell

ASA, MAAA
Actuarial Manager

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Mary P. Ratelle

FSA, MAAA
Senior Consulting Actuary

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Mark Tanner

FSA, MAAA
Consulting Actuary

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Jeffrey L. Smith

MAAA, FCA, MBA
Consulting Actuary

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Additional Team Members

Support Staff

Amanda Rocha

Actuarial Analyst

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Katie Bell

Office Manager

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JEFFREY L. SMITH, FCA, MAAA, MBA

Jeff has more than 40 years of health actuarial experience. His experience includes work with insurance companies, managed care organizations, regulators, providers, and employers.  

Jeff’s career includes more than 25 years in corporate actuarial work, including appointments to chief actuary and chief financial officer positions. He also has experience in the political areas of health care financing and delivery, working with lobbyists and political action committees. In addition he has served as adjunct faculty, teaching graduate courses in health care financing.  

Jeff’s consulting experience includes projects involving rate model development, evaluating and re-engineering underwriting processes for large insurers and managed care organizations, and actuarial and underwriting regulatory compliance. He has served as interim chief actuary for several insurers during their staffing transitions.  

Jeff regularly assists his clients with projects that include pricing, reserving, provider network analysis, and product development. He has worked to develop software tools and reporting systems to help clients measure and manage their healthcare costs. He also conducts training classes in rating and underwriting techniques and the use of automated tools for problem solving.  

Jeff has worked with clients that require “non-traditional” work, including modeling of government funding and tax financing for public behavioral health and financial management reporting systems.  

MARK TANNER, FSA, MAAA

Mark has 20 years of actuarial experience in a variety of product lines, including health. Among other things, Mr. Tanner has worked in product development, helping to develop the first click-to-purchase disability income insurance in the United States. He was also part of the team that created the first National Consumer Cost Tool allowing Blues plan members in more than 20 states to view the typical cost of 54 elective procedures at facilities in their area.

Mr. Tanner has also been very involved in pricing and modeling. He was the primary pricing decision maker for disability income and other living benefits at Munich Re, and led a team of AXIS modelers for disability income pricing. Prior to that, he served as Chief actuary of the Puerto Rico business unit at Assurant, where he oversaw pricing for all five product lines. While at Aetna, he performed annual experience analysis and pricing changes by region for Aetna’s stop loss insurance products and redesigned the group long-term disability insurance rating system

Regarding regulatory support, Mark was the Appointed Actuary for two life companies, including a client’s captive reinsurance company. He signed off on reserves, led the creation of annual statement actuarial exhibits and reports, and successfully represented clients to regulators and auditors.

In addition to his actuarial and consulting skills, Mark is known for his innovative presentations at client and actuarial conferences, which are highly praised by both technical and non-technical audiences. Mark lived and worked for several years in Latin America and is fully fluent in Spanish. He has a passion for cross-border collaboration in both professional work and humanitarian endeavors.

KATIE BELL

Katie Bell is a talented and accomplished business and administrative professional with extensive experience. She is a creative problem solver with excellent communication skills. She efficiently assists junior and senior staff with various tasks often with little supervision. She has gained a specialized knowledge of finance and actuarial insurance markets.

Ms. Bell is responsible for coordinating and tracking health care rate reviews. She efficiently utilizes the System for Electronic Rates & Forms Filing (SERFF) to download and update rate filings. She has supported a project to develop various reports on market share, company solvency, and financial history utilizing the National Association of Insurance Commissioner financial data.

AMANDA ROCHA

Amanda Rocha is a highly organized and detail-oriented actuarial analyst with a Master’s degree in Mathematics.

Ms. Rocha has experience reviewing health care rate filings for state regulators for reasonableness regarding actuarial assumptions. She supported senior staff in reviewing Medicare Advantage (MA) and prescription drug plan rates for CMS. Amanda used her extensive programming skills to create a detailed map identifying rating factors by county for multiple states. She has participated in building and reviewing an actuarial model to determine the number of employees who could access paid leave as related to COVID-19.

Amanda’s experience includes working with senior staff to comply with CMS reporting requirements for Oregon’s and New Hampshire’s Section 1332 Waivers.

Amanda Rocha holds a Master of Science in Mathematics from Claremont Graduate University. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Mount St. Mary’s University.

RICHARD CADWELL

Richard is an assistant actuarial with NovaRest.  Richard graduated from the University of Arizona in 2011 with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics with an emphasis in Economics.  He has passed the Society of Actuaries Preliminary Actuarial Exam P – Probability, FM- Financial Mathematics and MFE – Model for Financial Economics and Models for Life Contingencies.  Richard has extensive experience in data analysis  as well as in depth knowledge of Microsoft products and programming skills.

He has assembled a report utilizing statistical methods to demonstrate the effects of Risk Aversion. He has solved various probabilistic/statistical problems dealing with a Risk-related decision making. He has built an economic model to project business decisions applied to a variety of markets.

Mr. Cadwell is currently providing support for rate review projects in Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and Vermont.

MARY P. RATELLE, FSA, MAAA

Mary has over 25 years of experience in managing the risks of health care plans/insurers, captives, multi-employer trusts, health care providers and self-funded employers.  Her consulting experience includes reimbursement strategies, product design, experience analysis, pricing, underwriting, administration, management reporting, risk modeling, contribution strategies, small group reform, financial reporting, and expert witness.  Market segments include commercial group (large and small), individual direct pay, Medicare, Medicaid, and managed Workers Compensation.

WAYNE NOVAK

Wayne Novak, MBA is an innovative and professional consultant and project manager with strong experience in the health care field. Mr. Novak has seventeen years of experience in the insurance and financial industries and ten years of management experience.

In addition to supporting consulting teams, he is experienced in developing and implementing sophisticated policies and procedures for the financial and operational success. Mr. Novak is an expert at delivering projects on budget and time.

Mr. Novak has built models to perform actuarial analysis and developed a series of reports duplicating the analysis required by the NAIC Health Examiners Handbook. He has worked with accounting departments and actuary departments to prepare the Statutory Annual Statement Blanks for a range of health care companies. He also provided support for the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) bid reviews and audits.

Mr. Novak is currently pursuing a M.B.A. from Northwest University in Kirkland, Washington. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Accounting, and Economics from the University of Kansas.

AUDREY HALVORSON, FSA, MAAA

Audrey Halvorson, FSA, MAAA is a project manager and senior actuary with 24 years of management, healthcare consulting, and major healthcare provider experience.  She spent seven (7) years as the vice-president of actuarial services and healthcare economic for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona. She is an accomplished project manager and analyst.  She has a proven track record of accurately projecting claims and calculating incurred but not reported reserves.  Her work experience includes projecting cash flows, running risk scores, and research.

DONNA NOVAK FCA, ASA, MAAA, MBA

Donna has 40 years of experience and is the leader of NovaRest consulting. She specializes in health care cost reduction, predicting the cost of health care insurance reform, as well as measuring the financial health of insurers, HMOs, and provider health care risk takers. She has worked with state regulators and the NAIC to implement new insurance reform regulations and with the NAIC to develop liquidity standards for all organizations assuming the risk for health care costs or provision of care. She led the project to write the NAIC Health Financial Analyst Manual and has assisted regulators in tri-annual insurance reviews. She has been engaged by regulators to review proposed business affiliations between health insurance entities.

Donna’s current consulting activities focus on supporting state and federal insurance regulators. Donna has participated in CMS Medicare bid desk audits, CMS Medicare bid audits, and reviews of Retiree Drug Subsidy actuarial attestations. Donna has worked with state regulators, the NAIC, and HHS to implement the current federal insurance reform, PPACA. Donna is currently Member of the Health Committee of the Actuarial standards board and of the Advisory Board to the HHS Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) Program.